Do you have a Citibank credit card?

[solarbird]

If you have a Citibank credit card, I want to know whether any of you are getting letters like this, which started showing up in mailboxes this week in various parts of the US. I am interested both in "yes, I have received this letter," and, "no, I have not received this letter," as well as permutations. "I got this letter but with a different interest rate" would be very interesting; "I got a letter a lot like this from another bank" would also be interesting, particularly if your credit score is good.

You may comment anonymously here - I'm going to be turning anonymous comments back on briefly for this purpose right after I post this - or, if you're not comfortable with that, please contact me through Livejournal inbox mail, or my email address.

I am not interested in debit card letters, not even Visa Debit. Only credit card.

Yeah, I know, this looks scammy. PLEASE DO NOT GIVE ME ANY INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR CREDIT CARD OTHER THAN WHETHER YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS LETTER, AND THE NAME OF THE BANK SENDING IT. I DO NOT WANT YOUR CARD NUMBER, TAX ID, EXPIRATION DATE, OR EVEN YOUR NAME. I DO NOT WANT ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION. DO NOT SEND SUCH THINGS TO ME. All I want to know about is whether or not you're a Citibank (or Infibank) customer and have or have not received this letter.

Basically, I'm trying to see whether the reports I'm hearing on financial boards about this are correct. Citi appears to be sending this out to all - or at least large subset of - cardholders, regardless of credit history. Infibank may be as well. Other banks are sending out letters, but they aren't this universal. This manoeuvre will cost Citi a lot of credit customers, and they seem okay with that, which is interesting.

eta: Anonymous comments will be screened. Tell me IN THE COMMENT if you don't want them unscreened.

Comments

[archanglrobriel.livejournal.com]

Yep, I got one awhile back and I posted about it at the time. I'm still not sure what the heck I'm gonna -do- about it, since this puts us between the rock and the hard place...but for whatever it's worth... I got one.

[solarbird]

29.99% APR now?

[kalinobeche.livejournal.com]

[Unknown site tag] referred me to you. I too got one of these letters this week. My APR would have gone to 29.99% if I hadn't rejected the terms. I'm letting the card expire and will continue to pay it off. Let me know if you need more info.

[solarbird]

Thanks, appreciated. At least a couple of people have not yet received these letters.

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

Have not.

[solarbird]

You have a Citi credit card and have not received this letter, or you don't have a Citi credit card at all?

[kodi]

I have two Citibank cards, and I have not received this letter. In March or so, I received a similar letter, but it was 12.99% to 16.99% on one card, the only card I had at that time. A month later, I received an offer to sign up for a similar Citibank card on a different credit network with a 12.99% rate, and accepted. I really hope I don't get such a letter, since I carry a substantial balance on that card; 16.99% was a bad enough hit.

[solarbird]

As far as I know, these letters are still rolling out, so if you get one, please update?

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

One thing you may want to note as well:

You may want to specify if you want info re Citibank-branded Mastercard and Visa cards *versus* Citibank-managed "store only" cards (i.e. cards that are not technically Mastercard or Visa and are usable only at a specific merchant or chain; you DO still see these with some chains, especially electronics stores and gas companies).

I note this as often the terms between "store only" cards and "store affinity cards" (aka store-branded Mastercard or Visa cards that offer points for shopping at a specific retailer or chain but are usable at other stores) DO differ--and there are some cases where retailers do issue both.

[solarbird]

Store cards - even if managed by the same bank as the regular cards - are different, for lots of reasons. Thanks for the call-out on that, though; it's interesting.

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

I have a citibank card, but have not yet gotten a screw-you letter.

I haven't used the card actively in years, though, and don't have a balance on it. (Or any cards, yay!)

[solarbird]

Be on the lookout for a non-usage fee or cancellation. A lot of people with extended zero balances are getting those from a lot of banks.

A lot of users with zero month-to-month balances but active use on the cards - they pay off in full each month - are getting these letters, so it's interesting that no usage so far means no letter. At least, not yet. Thanks.

[solarbird]

Added for collection purposes, from two anonymous sources, data posted with explicit permission:

1. Non-US citizen with US Citibank credit card, both rates raised to 16.99% from 12.99%. Note: recipient has doctorate and Citi knows about it. Received letter 23 October at a US address.

2. US citizen with US Citibank credit card, 29.99%, standard letter, received 23 October at a US address.

1. and 2. have linked financial affairs and the same surname. Both letters were received at the same address.

[hugh-mannity.livejournal.com]

I got a similar letter from CapitalOne a while ago. I don't have a Citibank card, and I don't know my credit rating offhand, but it's pretty good.

[solarbird]

May I ask the before-and-after APRs?

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Yep, we got one. Luckily we don't have a balance on ANY Credit card. We just use them for convenience (so we don't write checks at the store, online, etc). I make sure all my Business Accounts do like wise.
It should be noted that not only do we pay ON TIME, IN Full each month (save when bill payer (that's me) gets sick or has her computer crap out on her), we both have Excellent (above 750) credit scores.
Currently, they give us money back, so we'll keep them for now.
We are waiting for the Annual Fee ax to fall. Then we'll determine who we are going to keep and who we plan to ax. If you charge us for keeping your card, then we are NOT keeping you. Real simple. There are still enough card providers out there that we can get what we want (see excellent credit score). And yes, I know how lucky we are on that.
Our Credit Union just axed BofA (was First USA) as their CC service provider. So we are waiting for their new card to come out, then I'm switching to that one and dropping the now non-CU card.
Fun Fun Fun in the Credit World. Not.

[solarbird]

I like credit unions. I have one charge card; it's with a CU.

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

Yup, I got a letter like this, and our credit's solid. The Citi card just got shuffled to the bottom of our deck.

[solarbird]

Thanks. This... isn't good. Leaving aside Citi - 'cause srsly, screw those guys - imagine what this'll do to retailers going into Christmas season.

[tfabris.livejournal.com]

I got a rate increase from citibank several months ago. It wasn't as high as 30 percent, but it was significant enough to make me shop around. In the end I transferred my balance to a new Wells Fargo card with a much saner interest rate.

My card with Citi is still open, but with a zero balance. This news makes me want to close it altogether.

(ok to post publicly)

[solarbird]

(ok to post publicly)
Good, 'cause you didn't post it anonymously so it wasn't screened! (I'd have screened it when I saw it if you'd said you'd wanted it private, of course.)

Let me know if you get one of those letters. So far, holders of unused cards in my little set of responses aren't getting letters. Holders of cards used-but-paid-off-every-month cards generally, by contrast, have been. You're the second person to note getting the 12.99% to 16.99% letter (or variant) several months ago, though.

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

I was a Citibank customer and got such a letter. I opted out.

ETA: I have credit on the high end of 'good', ten year cardholder with Citi through a boutique brand (AT&T), got the letter about two months ago. I had a high balance (the card was my 'get out of unemployment free' card twice) but had always made (over)payments on time.

[solarbird]

Thanks much.

[403.livejournal.com]

A quick heads up: Citibank has been rolling this out since July (http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/interest-rate-increase-c228833.html).

[solarbird]

...yeah, sorta? There was a big spate of spring hikes, but they weren't universally 29.99% - a lot of people got hiked up, but Citi would often still negotiate or change your card agreement or something. Then it stopped for a while, until the last week when they seem to have picked it up again in a big way.

idk tho', maybe complaints just stopped for a while.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I have a Citibank card, but I don't recall having received such a letter... yet. That doesn't mean I won't get one soon.

[solarbird]

Let me know if you do, if you don't mind? Thanks.

Own 2 Citicards

[(Anonymous)]

The Mr. and me own a Citi card each. Have had them for many years.
His has 25 K credit and 19% interest, no balance owed.
Mine has 11 K credit line and 6.25% interest ( I negotiated that about 6 mos. ago.)
We both have high FICOs. NO debt except for low mortgage.

To date we have not gotten any letters.

I have a local bank VISA card, no balance, 9% interest, have had that card for 11 years.

Re: Own 2 Citicards

[solarbird]

Thanks. Let us know if this changes? Citi is reportedly telling some people who call that this is a blanket thing. I'm wondering whether that's true.

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

Chase nailed me- canceled my oldest credit card for dubious reasons. I don't have a citi card, but I do have Capital One. I'll bet they're going to screw me, too.

Hello, Credit Union?

[solarbird]

I like our credit union.

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

my mom got one

[solarbird]

Thanks. She's in the majority so far, it seems.

[(Anonymous)]

No letter here. We have an unused citicard. Up until maybe 2 months ago, we carried a small balance on it that we paid off every month, but at the moment we're not using it at all (they changed the fees charged on this one transaction making it no longer worthwhile to use this card for that purpose).

You can post this, I just didn't want it associated with my used id.

[solarbird]

Thanks; if you get one, please update?

[solarbird]

An anonymous source (known to me) reports that their Radio Shack card - a Citibank-operated store card - just triggered the same letter. They're cancelling the card.

[denelian.livejournal.com]

i have a generic Chase Visa - i know it isn't CitiBank, but there have multiple letters recently. mostly Chase is trying to make switch to a card with an anual fee; but i have also had my interest rate raised, and it was from 13.5% to 18% to 23% - and with every hike, a letter trying to get me to switch to a card with a 13% (or possibly lower) with an annual fee of $25, because this would be a "deal" for me, and it *looks* as if they are using the rising interest rates to force people onto mandatory-fee cards.
i was very bluntly told, though, that i wasn't a priority because i have such a small credit line and have declined all past attempts to raise it. it might be that they are just trying to force me to take out *more* credit. idk.

i also don't know if the is relevent or helpful, at all. but it *might* be.

[kitchengrrl.livejournal.com]

Greg got a letter like this just the other day. I don't think his card is a citibank card, but I'm not sure. Our credit is stellar, and of course, he will not be putting up with this.

[theprimarydave.livejournal.com]

I have an Exxonmobile branded Citi card. To the best of my knowledge, I haven't received one, yet. Our last statement (which I just grabbed online) which was dated 22 Oct still has my normal rate of around 20%. I'm a US citizen, have excellent credit, and never carry a balance (which is one of the reasons I don't care about the rate).

Though it used to be our primary card, I now only use it for gas purchases at Exxon or Mobile (so that I get the 3% back) and use another card for all other purchases.

I also had another Citi card which was canceled for non-use, but I was warned in plenty of time that they were going to do it. I could very well have charged something to keep it active, I just chose not to.

[mortonfox.livejournal.com]

I haven't gotten such a letter yet but my APR is already 16.99%

[atara.livejournal.com]

We don't have a Citibank card, but I thought I'd shoot you a line and let you know that the blog Consumerist posted about something similar to this (http://consumerist.com/5386754/citibank-invents-pretend-rate-for-credit-card) a few weeks ago - another permutation of the letter.

[quentincoyote.livejournal.com]

Yes, I got one from Citibank yesterday. Raised to 18.99 percent, up from 11 percent, which was itself a raise they did to me earlier this year. Before that, it was like 7 percent. I have excellent credit, and I have never missed a payment.